No, ATI Technologies is not returning/relaunching

Over the past few days, a Twitter account called itself ATI Technologies has claimed that the ATI brand will “relaunch” on October 1st, a day where the company will also be revealing “the next generation of 3D graphics. 

Coincidentally, October 1st is exactly six months after April 1st, a popular time for jokes, fake product announcements and other parodies. While October 1st is the furthest away from April Fools day that you can get, the fact that this new Twitter account is a troll is undeniable. The fake 3DFX Twitter account is still fresh in our minds. 

For starters, ATI never closed down. ATI was purchased by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) back in 2006. ATI is still operating today, albeit under the AMD brand. AMD stopped using the ATI brand name in 2010, though the company’s Radeon branding remains in active use. 

AMD is unlikely to reforge its legacy ATI brand as it would diminish its broader AMD brand name. AMD still owns the ATI brand name, and some of AMD’s Canadian locations still operate under the ATI Technologies ULC name (according to AMD’s website). Beyond that, nobody can create a new entity called ATI Technologies without being sued into oblivion by AMD. 

Unless AMD decides to revive its legacy ATI branding, it is unlikely that the ATI name will return in any meaningful way. The fact that this troll account links to ati.com, a website that redirects to AMD’s website, and that the account’s latest Tweet uses Radeon branded imagery already confirms that there is no “new ATI” on the horizon.